Author: Dakuku Peterside

NIGERIANS are facing the reality of scarcity of cash literarily. Banks are overwhelmed by angry customers demanding money, the ATMs are flooded with furious Nigerians struggling to withdraw cash, and some spend the whole day hoping to get a few Naira notes to pay bills. POS operators complain of a lack of money; a few have charged between 15% and 20% to customers to get some cash. Most Nigerians are stranded because the bank apps for transfers need to be fixed, and most cannot make or receive transferred money. Naira notes are in high demand, and the newly redesigned notes…

NIGERIA’S general election, the largest democratic exercise in Africa, begins on 25 February. All the parties and candidates are jostling to get the voters’ attention and convince them to vote for them in the elections. The wait is palpitating, and the electioneering campaign drama is thus far exhilarating. Everything but issues facing Nigerians is fair game and the political satire playing out even keeps the unapologetic patriot ashamed of our political process. Conventions and rules of the political games are written and broken with recklessness. Many parties’ political strategy seems to be “no strategy”. They seem to go with the…

THE theatricals for winning the hearts and minds of the voters are all around us. The perceptual game of showing strength in the number of supporters is an  age long effective game plan for the parties, and it is one strategy that cuts across all parties. All political parties are outdoing themselves in winning the popularity contests typified by pulling a crowd with the most outrageous noises and boisterous displays in rallies on the streets, roads, stadiums, and other venues that can contain crowds. If pulling crowds is the determinant of election outcomes, the 2023 general elections would have been…

THE inauguration of the Management Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) last week, the second under President Buhari, was greeted with mixed reactions by the people of the Niger Delta and most Nigerians. The people’s response is rooted in many issues, most of which are connected and straddling. I list them here in no hierarchy of importance: a feeling of relief  that finally, the jinx of interim management has broken, a seeming sweetener for politics and the political season we are in, at last hopes of assuaging  the reign of mismanagement that has dented the image of the organisation…

2023 for Nigerians is about choice and with choice comes consequences . We face critical decisions on many issues that will define our future as a country and as citizens. The most obvious and consequential of this choice and consequence effect is the general elections.   We will be voting at various levels and constituencies to elect leaders that will pilot the country’s affairs for the next four years. The presidential election is the zenith of these elections, and its significance has far-reaching consequences for the country. On its face value, unlike earlier presidential elections where we had two real options, Nigerians…